.

Very faithfully yours,
GERALD BLAKE.'

'P. S.--The genuine Gianesi will probably arrive at Lairg to-morrow.
My unfortunate associate (whom I cannot sufficiently pity), relieved
him of his ingenious machine _en_ _route_, and left him, heavily
drugged, in a train bound for Fort William. Or perhaps Gianesi may
come by sea to Loch Inver. G.B.'

When Merton had read this elegant epistle aloud, Benson entered, bearing
electrical apparatus which had been found in the book boxes abandoned by
Blake. What he had done was obvious enough. He had merely smuggled in,
in his book boxes, a machine which corresponded with that of the
kidnappers, and had substituted its mechanism for that supplied to Mr.
Macrae by Gianesi and Giambresi. This he must have arranged on the
Saturday night, when Merton saw the kilted appearance of Eachain of the
Hairy Arm. A few metallic atoms from the coherer on the floor of the
smoking-room had caught Merton's eye before breakfast on Sunday morning.
Now it was Friday morning! And still no means of detecting and capturing
the kidnappers had been discovered.

Out of the captive nothing could be extracted. The room had been
cleared, save for Mr. Macrae, Logan, and Bude, and the man had been
interrogated. He refused to answer any questions, and demanded to be
taken before a magistrate. Now, where was there a magistrate?

Logan lighted the smoking-room fire, thrust the poker into it, and began
tying hard knots in a length of cord, all this silently. His brows were
knit, his lips were set, in his eye shone the wild light of the blood of
Restalrig. Bude and Mr. Macrae looked on aghast.

'What _are_ you about?' asked Merton.

'There are methods of extracting information from reluctant witnesses,'
snarled Logan.

'Oh, bosh!' said Merton. 'Mr. Macrae cannot permit you to revive your
ancestral proceedings.'

Logan threw down his knotted cord. 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Macrae,' he
said, 'but if I had that dog in my house of Kirkburn--' he then went out.

'Lord Fastcastle is a little moved,' said Merton. 'He comes of a wild
stock, but I never saw him like this.'

Mr. Macrae allowed that the circumstances were unusual.

A horrible thought occurred to Merton. 'Mr. Macrae,' he exclaimed, 'may
I speak to you privately? Bude, I dare say, will be kind enough to
remain with that person.'

Mr. Macrae followed Merton into the billiard-room.

'My dear sir,' said the pallid